


Stargazing

by Merely_Specters



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Ficlet, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, One Shot, Post-Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall, Pre and Post Reichenbach, Pre-Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23423245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merely_Specters/pseuds/Merely_Specters
Summary: John Watson looks up at the stars, sometimes, and thinks of Sherlock.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Stargazing

John Watson stared up at the night sky.

He was sitting on the flat’s roof. John had needed to clear his head, and somehow, someway, he found himself up here.

Stargazing on a busy London night was no easy task. The light pollution of London muted each twinkling star, making difficult the process of discerning constellations and planets. There were blinking red lights from planes and helicopters darting left and right. Traffic below honked and roared. Tires screeched, and even at 3 AM children wailed, and everything was overwhelming and chaotic and human.

But John knew it was dark, up in space. Once you got past all the lights, all the noise and hubbub of London, it was dark. Quiet, too. If John could fly higher, if he could _be_ up there, it would be peaceful.

Life on earth was anything but. Sherlock was passed out on the couch below; John had thrown a blanket over Sherlock’s shivering body before heading to the roof. Before John met that man, his life had been quieter (certainly not peaceful, but quiet).

John stared at the faded lights. He recognized a planet hanging overhead—Jupiter, if he wasn’t mistaken. London was grounded, but Jupiter flew high above them all, operating at a velocity John could barely comprehend. John reached up, almost as if he could touch Jupiter, to bring it down from the heavens onto the ground. John wished he could tell it to slow down, to come down to earth and stay awhile. To ignore boredom and choose safety, for once. To plant his feet solidly on the pavement.

But John knew Jupiter would never slow down. The planet would remain in orbit, revolving around the sun, running laps around anyone who said otherwise. In a month or two, Jupiter would no longer be visible in the night sky. Jupiter would never stop. Jupiter would continue to spiral, further and more out of control, until eventually, he went too far. He would spiral out of John’s grasp forever.

And one day, Jupiter was going to get himself killed. And John wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

John would try to save him.

John would fail.

But for now, John could see Jupiter. He could gaze up at him in the night sky. He could reach out to him. And even if John couldn’t stop Jupiter, he could pretend—just for a moment—that he would.

So John went back to bed, still in denial. 

★

_When Jupiter finally did hit the pavement, John found himself nauseated, appalled, outraged, grief-ridden. But not surprised._

_No._

_No matter how John denied it, in the back of his mind, he knew that the fall had always been a certainty._

**Author's Note:**

> I just started watching Sherlock, so I decided to come back from the dead to post my one-shot.


End file.
